Nearly 200 community leaders, mostly women but including a fair sprinkling of brave men managed to climb out of bed, get dressed for work and make it to Mesa College by 7:30 am last week to hear a report on the status of women in our state from the Women's Foundation of Colorado.

Founded on the belief that women's success is essential to the success of the community, the Women's Foundation of Colorado promotes the full participation of women and girls in society. "We are the mother of all funds for women and girls in Colorado. We are challenging the past. We are informing the present. We WILL change the future."

The Women's Foundation is dedicated to the economic progress of women and girls throughout Colorado. It was founded in 1987 and has invested more than $5.5 million and worked with more than 170 agencies in 70 communities to remove barriers and increase economic opportunities for women and girls.

Marla Williams, President and C. E. O reported that the Foundation in cooperation with the Institute for Women's Policy Research had done a study of the current status of women nationally, and she spoke in detail on the economic status of women in Colorado. Colorado ranks fifth nationally as one of the best places for women. But the bad news is that in the end, the results show that there is still lots of work to be done.

Despite improvements in women's status nationally and a strong performance in Colorado, women have not achieved equality with men in any state. Compared with the ideal of equality, Colorado's highest grades are B's.

What do we know about the our daughters, and their future opportunities to be scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, politicians, leaders? There is good news and bad news.

Colorado girls are generally healthier than girls in other states. They live in a state hospitable to an active lifestyle, and are more likely than their counterparts to participate in physical education. The Colorado Student Assessment Program results show that girls consistently meet state standards in all content areas, including math and science - at a higher rate than boys through the 7th grade. They take nearly the same number of math and science classes. Their SAT scores are practically identical to the boys' scores. 83% of them graduate from High School.

The teen pregnancy rate in Colorado has decreased in the past 10 years. Today's girls have their own definition of leadership and it rests less with power and more with solid people skills. Girls are as likely as boys to assume leadership roles in their schools.

On the other hand, Colorado girls, as well as boys, engage in practices that jeopardize their well being, smoking, drinking, and illegal drugs. They have one of the country's highest rates of low birth weight babies. Less than half of teen mothers have completed high school. Girls accounted for a third of arrests of individuals under 18.

Colorado women make up 40% of the work force, but the wage gap is still there. Women earn 75.3 cents per every dollar earned by men, and rank 16th in the country in that area. 34% of women who are single heads of households live below the poverty level.

But Colorado ranks second in the nation on an index measuring economic autonomy. Colorado places fourth in rankings for women's educational achievement. Colorado places third in business ownership by women. Compared to the national average of 17.6%, 23.5% of Colorado women have completed four years or more of college.

Women and girls have made a great deal of progress in Colorado in recent decades. They are better educated, more active in the work force and have made some strides in narrowing the wage gap. But they still face substantial and persistent obstacles to attaining economic self sufficiency. The glass ceiling is still up there.

So there is good news and bad news. What is enough? Enough is when somebody says, "Get me the best people you can find for this job," and nobody notices when half of them turn out to be women.